In the spotlight

The European Institute of Public Administration has recently made available some material delivered during recent training sessions organised by the European Commission . The training was designed for national administrators who are currently working on developing implementation strategies for the Recommendation 'Investing in children - breaking the cycle of disadvantage'. This builds on the training seminars held throughout Europe over the past months, notably in Athens in May 2014, and in Italy in March 2014.

The Children’s Society latest report analysed children’s wellbeing. The report highlighted children’s perceptions of their wellbeing and life satisfaction. It is based on surveys or interviews with about 50,000 children in about 40 countries worldwide on what makes them happy.

The yearly General Discussion Day of the UN committee on the Rights of the Child has focused on defining strategies that guarantee rights to give online opportunities for children while protecting them from risks and possible harm.

The United Nations (UN) has recently appointed Professor Danius Pūras as the new Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. Professor Pūras is a Lithuanian human rights defender, psychiatrist and has previously been Chair of the Board of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI). This is the first time that a Lithuanian representative has been appointed to such a high position within the UN

Although the strong commitment to Millennium Development Goals has heralded significant improvements in global poverty reduction, UNICEF asserts that “this progress has been inequitable, with children from the poorest backgrounds seeing the fewest gains.”

Governments worldwide are increasingly coming to terms with the importance of early investment in childhood to prevent the rise of inequality in the coming decades. The Europe 2020 strategy aims to reduce the number of people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion by 20 million. To ensure that poverty reduction goals are achieved, both Belgium and the United Kingdom have recently adopted child poverty reduction strategies, with a view to reduce overall poverty levels, including for children and young people. These strategies rest on investment in children’s services and other social services to help undermine the cycle of disadvantage.